cool bands from china's underground music scene that you should totally check out! (^ ω ^) - part 1

intro? (￣ω￣)/

so basically how i got interested in the chinese music scene. i live in hong kong and visited shenzhen on a trip recently, and I went to this cool ass local book store/record store/cafe called old heaven books! it was sick as hell, i highly recommend! they mostly sell records and cds from underground experimental rock, folk, punk, and indie bands from mainland china and i decided to check a bunch of the bands out! this kinda got me down a lil rabbit hole of chinese underground music and i found a bunch of freaking amazing new music! almost all of the bands i checked out were freaking amazing but they are so crazy underground and niche outside of china (some of them are under 1k monthly listeners on spotify) so i decided to post about a few of em here so hopefully a few more people could find out about them and enjoy their music and stuff. <3 although i must say i am not very knowledgable about the scene there. i mostly only know the bands which were featured in the record store and the slightly more popular ones that are on western internet, so i prob missed a bunch of cool bands... anyways here are some bands i really enjoyed!＼(￣▽￣)／

some cool-ass bands that you should check out!  (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

1. Carsick Cars

this is an older (formed around 2005) super renowed (at least in the mainland scene) noise-rock band originating from beijing. their sound is noisy and a lil experimental (kinda like sonic youth) but also super duper catchy and anthemic! the guitars are really twinkly and catchy and overall its really really great shit!! i freaking LOVEEE the parts where they just devolve into pure noise and feedback and chaos but then wring it back together for a final chorus like in the middle of "zhong nan hai" its so sick! i've only listened to their self titled album so far (i bought it on cd!) so i can't speak about the sound of their other stuff but that album is amazing and go check it out! heres a old live video of them playing "Zhong Nan Hai" live (in hong kong too :->) its freaking fire!!

2. Dream Can (or maybe Canned Dreams? idk the band is called Canned Dreams on spotify but the cd and live videos call it Dream Can, prob a translation issue)

this band is newer (formed in 2014 but released first LP in 2018) and their stuff is sooo freaking amazing. i dont even know how to describe their sound its krazy as heck. im not sure if im just too musically uneducated but the best thing i could call it is a mix of like this psychedelic + dream pop + the shoegazey reverb but not the distortion plus one billion moodieness. its soooo freaking atmospheric and moody and unique i've never heard anything like it. and omg the vocals!! THE VOCALS ARE SOOO GOOD AND LIKE SORTA SLACKER FEELING BUT ALSO NOT its just so unique! its like pink floyds more washed out music (but like in the reverby way not in the negative way) but modern and shit! again i've only listened to their debut album 救火人(english title: "into sparks") so far (i bought it on cd) so not their new album yet but i will eventually will get to it, i luv this band so much! a lot of their lyrics are in english too and its so raw about like societal pressures and shit its amazing! here is my fav song of theirs, "Cheap Cheap Time I Live, Money Money Saves Me"

3.  假假條 (JaJaTao)

now we're getting into some real heavy shit! this is a sludge metal band formed in 2013 and holy poop it is heavy as hell. like the riffs and tone and production are so fucking dense and intense its sooooo violent and sick just SOOO groovy. its like acid bath if it only had the fast songs and also incorporated like chinese traditional instruments and shit. i love the vocals too like they are so unique and "yelpy" that i feel like it could easily stray into corniness but it never does! it only heightens like the intensity and anger and shit! here is their song "湘靈鼓瑟" (no official english translation, google translate says its called Xiang Ling plays the harp) and it is sludgy and heavy as heck!

4. Wellsaid

okay this is sorta cheating a lil bit but this band needs sooo much more recognition. wellsaid is an sorta emo, (but like the midwest twinkly algeron cadwaller kind not the scene mcr kind) sorta indie band from the local scene here in hong kong!! they are SOOOO GOOD yet they do not get the recognition they deserve at all. i've saw them live once around two years ago (i haven't been able to make it to any of their shows since) and AHHH they are sooooo freaking good. they just have a knack for writing catchy ass but really heartfelt and sincere chord progressions and vocal melodies and ya people gotta check em out! here is a vid of them playing their most popular song "spilling your guts" in a random cha can ting somewhere (and its sick!)

5. Chinese Football

this band is actually pretty popular outside of mainland china (48,718 monthly listeners on spotify!), and that is for really good reason!! they are a pretty traditional midwest emo band, super influenced by american football. (hence the name) their stuff is really heartfelt and emotional, the riffs are really melancholic and the vocals are super yearning and straight from the soul. they just make really damn good midwest emo and are freaking amazing and def deserve all the recognition they've gotten (and a shit ton more) frack i still hate that i missed them when they came to hk like a year ago since i didn't know who they were at the time o(>< )o... guh whatever. here is my personal fav song by them, goalkeeper! 

yea anyways theres the end of this little music nerd blog post!! hopefully ya people found some new cool music to listen to! ill prob make a part 2 to this post sometime later since theres still a few cool bands that i haven't touched on yet, but yeah!! (＾▽＾)